Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Este estilo está-se a tornar muito popular agora.

Este estilo está-se a tornar muito popular agora.

This style is becoming very popular now.

Breakdown of Este estilo está-se a tornar muito popular agora.

muito

much / very

estar

to be (temporary / location)

agora

now

este

this (este, esta, estes, estas)

Questions & Answers about Este estilo está-se a tornar muito popular agora.

Why is the pronoun -se attached to está instead of tornar?

In Portuguese verbal complexes (like estar a + infinitive, which acts as the continuous tense), you often have a choice of where to put the object pronoun. In a normal affirmative sentence without any 'pull words' (like negative words or certain conjunctions), you can attach it to the auxiliary verb (está-se a tornar) or to the main verb (está a tornar-se). Both are completely correct and natural!

Why do we need the -se here at all? Doesn't tornar just mean 'to become'?

By itself, tornar usually means 'to return' or 'to make' (as in making something else change). To say that a subject itself 'becomes' or changes state, you must use the reflexive form, tornar-se (literally 'to turn itself'). Because the style is changing on its own, we need the -se.

The lesson is about 'gerund' structures, but I see the preposition a + infinitive (a tornar). Why is that?

In European Portuguese, an ongoing continuous action (which English expresses with an '-ing' gerund) is standardly formed with the verb estar + a + the infinitive of the main verb. While Brazilian Portuguese uses words ending in -ndo (like se tornando), people in Portugal almost exclusively use this estar a + infinitive structure.

Could I use ficar instead of here to say 'becoming popular'?